State outlines health funding for low-income women

Updated 11:12 pm, Thursday, June 21, 2012

AUSTIN - Cost-saving, cuts and crackdowns will help fund the state's takeover of a health care program for low-income women in Texas, after it cut ties with Planned Parenthood-affiliated providers and lost federal dollars in the process, according to state officials.

The state plans to use funds from a Medicaid fraud crackdown and services deemed unnecessary, plus a hiring freeze on administrative positions in health and human services to pay for the $40.1 million program.

The rest will come from savings due to eligibility-system changes, an overtime reduction and state money appropriated for the program before Texas got on the wrong side of the federal government by banning Planned Parenthood and other clinics affiliated with abortion providers.

The ban - which applies even though the affected clinics don't themselves provide abortions - has been halted by a federal court order while Planned Parenthood pursues a lawsuit saying the move violates its constitutional rights.

The state's decision has already prompted the federal government to say it must end financial support for Texas' program. Federal funding, which has paid for 90 percent of the program's annual cost, will wind down this year.

The program's continuation has a caveat, however. The state has said that if it's forced to include Planned Parenthood as a result of the lawsuit, it will instead have to end the program because state law won't allow funding for such organizations.

Funding shift

On the assumption the program will continue, Suehs got approval last month from the Legislative Budget Board and Perry's office to shift funding within his agency to free up $40.1 million in the current two-year budget period, which ends Aug. 31.

The money would come from:

1 Increase in fraud and abuse recovery receipts and lower-than-projected use of services including dental and transportation services. Agency spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the agency has cracked down on dental practices performing unnecessary services: $27.6 million

1 Early retirement of old eligibility determination system and reduction in staff overtime: $9.2 million

"Everything I get from people is that there isn't enough money for dental services in Texas," he said.

Regarding the Women's Health Program, Hons said, "It does not matter how they pay for this program. If Planned Parenthood is an otherwise qualified medical provider of these services, you can't just push us out of the program for these ideological reasons. It violates the Constitution of the United States and the speech and association freedoms upon which we have built this nation."

Some skeptics

Rochelle Tafolla of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast said of the plan, "What is astounding is that the state would be willing to turn their back on a 9-to-1 federal-to-state dollar match. It doesn't make any sense for the state to turn their back on that kind of money when the program has been very successful in achieving its goals of keeping low-income uninsured Texas women healthy by providing those basic preventive services."